A show suite is now open at New Zealand’s largest under-construction purpose-designed build-to-rent project: the 297-unit $225 million Te Reiputa, at 80 Mt Wellington Highway.
Liz Thomas, a Simplicity Living site manager at the almost-finished development, took the Herald on a tour of the first finished unit in the five-block scheme where weekly rental prices are yet to be announced.
“This is our biggest but it’s about to be the baby,” Thomas said, referring to Te Reiputa being dwarfed soon by the 330-unit scheme in the ex-Ellerslie Racecourse car park beside the motorway.
A 75sq m two-bedroom show suite is fully furnished, with art and potted plants to showcase it.
Apartments will come with blinds, fridges, washing machines/dryers, ovens and stovetops, a 177L hot water cylinder, individual heat pumps and balconies.
Exterior balcony clothes lines are strung low, beneath balustrades so laundry isn’t visually dominant from the outside.
Those Te Reiputa balconies were poured with the floorslab, cutting construction costs from about $70,000 if they were clipped on, to only $4500, Thomas says.
“They call me M’am Liz,” she said of the many Filipino workers who she praised for their reliability, politeness and extremely high levels of skills.
Two common areas will be available for tenants to party, socialise or work from home: one in the garden courtyard and the other atop the 11-level block.
Subcontractors working on the blocks include DNA Electrical, Bassett Plumbing & Drainage, Illingworth Plumbing, Builder Connect and NZ Build.
Superior Kitchens in East Tāmaki and BathCo in Mt Eden supplied kitchens and bathrooms, Thomas said.
Simplicity Living is part of the wider Simplicity business which has 176,000 KiwiSaver investors, $9.4b in funds under management and is headed by Sam Stubbs.
Te Reiputa is 1.7km from Resido - New Zealand’s largest existing build-to-rent project. Built by Kiwi Property, the 295-unit, based at Sylvia Park, sought $697 to $899/week last year when it opened.
All up, Simplicity is building or planning 1583 units at five sites it owns.
Those are all in Auckland except the largest, which is near Remarkables Park outside Queenstown.
Te Reiputa (whale tooth neck pendant) has five buildings of three to 11 storeys.
It will have 300 bike parks, 222 car parks in a ground-floor basement and outside, a rooftop solar farm and an 8000 sq m central courtyard with about 7000 shrubs and trees.
Sam Stubbs of Simplicity Living says the business is contemplating buying three further sites.
One of those sites could be land used for the City Rail Link project beside the Maungawhau Station.
The apartments are financed with Simplicity members’ KiwiSaver funds.
The properties could return 10-12% per annum, although that is yet to be proved.
What is known is that they will be tenanted by people who want the certainty of a lifetime rental.
External walls are layered with brick, ply, concrete, more ply, insulation then gib.
All that is to act as a thermal barrier that keeps the temperature inside stable. The system is called K.I.R.S.T.E.N, standing for “keep it real simple team efficiency node”.
The units have a generous 2.7m stud height, extended balconies, wider showers, heavy doors and landscaped gardens which Simplicity thinks will draw tenants.
Simplicity has cited long-term contractor relationships, very little framing or waste, as well as a ceiling slab that means work below can continue before the roof goes on.
Simplicity also freely shared its intellectual property for the construction process with other developers.
Simplicity Living’s new build-to-rent projects
Simplicity Living managing director Shane Brealey gave a presentation to the University of Auckland this month, where he said the business built differently:
“The key to improving the lot for everybody in our industry is to work together, get rid of the waste, control the design and construction interface,” Brealey said.
Brealey showed a New Zealand map outlining how Simplicity could build 4000 new rental properties in Auckland, Tauranga and Queenstown, 1000 in Wellington, 400 in Nelson, 200 in Christchurch and 100 in Invercargill.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.